This 2011 Year..

The start of a new year after a fantastically wonderful 2010 was equally as fantastic. I was still in Australia at the time, enjoying the sun with my friend Faye. It was a wonderful experience, one I’ll have to rehash in detail at a later date. Following my return back to Japan, this years charity show practice kicked started and promised to be quite fun. Along with that January also held a love dinner at Satoshi’s with my friend Chuma and a weekend long snowboarding trip in Nagano. That trip was loads of fun, and even though it was my first time ever snowboarding I think I failed at it even more than I could have imagined. Needless to say there was only so much I boarded, as I was tired and sore after a few big falls. Nevertheless January ’11 was a ‘two thumbs up’ experience.

February wasn’t much different. I didn’t manage to go that many places this month but I did focus quite a lot on my Youtube Beauty page I had started in December of last year. I did however manage to do a few big things during this particular month. On the 5th and 6th friends and I reprised our onsen trip from last year, and up we went to Unazuki where our hotel in the mountains awaited. I had a blast, even more so than the year before. Was able to interact with friends I don’t normally see as well as make a few new ones which is always a plus. This is yet another experience I might indeed have to rehash in better detail at another date. Towards the end of February; Faye, Chuma and I were off to Tokyo for the Nas and Damien Marley concert. That whole trip, though exhausting was wonderful. Ate fantastic food, shopped in Harajuku, saw an amazing concert, visited Tokyo tower, and had just an overall splendid time.

March was promised to be a very exciting month, and it turned out to be the beginning of the end in a way. Debbie and I flew off to Korea from the 5th through the 7th and had an amazing time. Met new people, saw pretty much every important part of sightseeing in Seoul, clubbed, ate soo much western food, shopped, and enjoyed the experience only a new country could give you. Following my return I managed to get quite the headache and experience the worst earthquake recorded in history I believe. Sendai’s 9.0 magnitude earthquake and following tsunami. Nevertheless from this point on my month took several turns. On the 12th I attended the Murder Mystery set up by our social reps and Hilda. It was a fun and unique affair. One I wouldn’t mind repeating in the future. The food and the company were great, and fun pictures came out of the experience. The following day I even managed to have the pleasure of dinner and karaoke with my Brazilian friends I don’t get to see often. It was nice. The following Friday was the farewell dinner for Tommy and another JTE that were leaving the school system. My board of education members and fellow Kurobe Jets are amazing ppl so the event was just that, amazing.

Nevertheless, this was the time where my life started to change for the worst. Starting March 17th and worsening on the 19th, my health took a drastic spiral from tension headache to basic body failure. Everything that could hurt or wanted to hurt did, and I felt as if I was dying. Despite feeling like hell I decided to go to my friend Miyu’s bachelorette dinner and karaoke session. Amazingly enough I had a good time and felt decent throughout, but that was the last day I would feel that well. From that point the rest of March was me in bed, the emergency room, and on the phone with my mother at all hours of the night.

April was much of the same. I didn’t manage to do anything, see anyone, feel decent enough, or was willing to leave my apartment outside of the essentials, and even then my apartment has never been more of a mess. On the 16th through the 17th I pushed myself out of the house and went with Hilda and ten other awesome people to fukano for a cabin trip for her birthday. Once again I felt pretty decent with only a few waves of feeling ill, but nevertheless I had a really good time. It was at this point where I thought I was seeing the end of the tunnel with my illness.. I was wrong. Another week of working and illness followed till the 24th where I attended Brett’s daughters 1st birthday party. That also was lot of fun, and I even karaoked with people afterwards. By the time I got home I felt the over exertion of the day and quickly passed out.
On the 30th of April I was off to Shimane to visit Greg and Jasmine. I had an absolutely AMAZING time there despite catching a round of Bronchitis the day I arrived, and still feeling the sickness kick my behind. We did a lot of things, none of which were too stressful, and I sincerely might I have to marry Jasmin as well. Tis no fair for Greg to have her all to himself ;) While I was there I saw a dance and singing show, karaoke, shopped, went to Tottori where we saw the lovely sand dunes, had a makeup session, went to Korean for my birthday, geeked out with Greg, and lazed around with Jasmin. In truth I miss them both very much and wish I never had to leave. Nevertheless I did, and I returned on the 7th of May.

The following day I met up with some friends in Toyama after lunch with Enrique for birthday karaoke. I could barely sing but it was nice to be around them. The rest of May has been the same. Illness with every changing symptoms. The only break in it all was the 21st for the May Birthday Party celebration. I went to my friend Yui’s home and did her, and Sayuri’s makeup for the party. Then we were off to Kirokichi to celebrate. It was a fairly simple affair. Food, drinks, and chatting. There was even birthday cake which was nice. Overall it was a nice experience, though it completely wore me out.


Now here I am May 25th, still feeling like death and with no window of feeling better in sight. Overall this year has been a roller coaster and I am currently at the bottom of the hill.

Whirlwind Summary of October

Saturday Oct 2: I decided that against my better judgment I answered an early morning phone call by my friend Pa asking if I wanted to hangout in Takaoka that Saturday. Considering that I hadn’t been there in a while, and it was a change to hang out with another one of the new girls Chuma I decided to get up and go. We got there and of course ate at the Brazilian place. Instead of getting a burger like normal I went for the buffet. It was a bit more expensive but I was able to get some variety of things instead of just a burger meal. Once the three of us finished lunch we walked over to Aeon mall and along the way we say a man dressed up in a Piccolo costume trying to bring people into a Docomo store, or at least I think it was a Docomo store. Once we made it to the mall we ended up just looking around not doing too much while we were there. In fact I don’t recall what we did. XD The only thing I can remember is me purchasing a cute pair of boots which in the end didn’t fit me! >.< lol

October 9th-11th: Kyoto Weekend Trip (separate blog)

October 16th-17th: Early Saturday morning (16th) I woke up and drove to Colare where I tutored the kids selected to travel to Macon, Georgia as a cultural exchange program they have here in my city school system. It was nothing special though I was surprised to find out that one of those kids I had taught last year was really good at English and had lived in Brittan for ten years prior. It was oddly scary and kind of cool sounding to hear a Japanese school kid speak English in a British accent.
When that was all over Lawrence and I headed to another room after grabbing some food at the kombini for band rehearsal. The puppet show was that night and both him and I were singing in the band for it. The rehearsal was quick and before I knew it I was rushing home to change into something nice for the show. I hurried back and they had dinner prepared for us. Once that was over it was SHOW TIME!, and thankfully everything went well. I sung the best I could despite being ridiculously nervous. We all received a good amount of praise and some flowers from one of my bosses in the Board of Education. It was an over all success and relieved everything went well we spent the rest of the night at the local bar drinking and having a good time.
The following Sunday we had a cookout at Jack’s house ( the guy who’s show I sung at the night before) and it was nice because I got to meet a lot of new people, mostly Japanese which I like since I would like to have roots here when I come back to visit Japan later on in life. I met this rowdy bunch from Osaka and some new girls that seem pretty cool and are my age. I had a good and fulfilling weekend!

Saturday October 23rd: This weekend kicked off the Halloween haze of the month. I decided to go as a cowgirl and went to a small gathering of a few Niikawa ALT’s and Japanese people. This took place at a local bar called Hanabsa. It was a cute get together and not MUCH was done. We participated in a little quiz and a few drinks here or there. It was a good start to what was going to be a interesting Saturday night. Once the event was over (only about a two hour long thing). When the event was over I decided to head out to Toyama to meet up with Xue, Akeem and Tina for some late night Karaoke. Jarrad even joined in on the fun as well. It was a crazy night at Karaoke cause I got to hear Tina sing. She was amazingly good, and Akeem was good as well. It should be interesting when Charity Show rolls around if the try out of singing roles. I also managed to save Jarrads life whilst singing. That’s always something to note! Hahaha

Saturday October 30th: Soooo today was the big Halloween Party, the one ppl had being planning for, for the last two to three months. Ofcourse I couldn’t devote my Saturday morning to getting my costume prepared and ready, but I had to attend a music concert thing at my school on a Saturday morning which lasted the whole day. I was freezing and didn’t get home till around 3 something. My wig that I had been waiting in the mail for had also not arrived so I was frantic in trying to figure out what I was going to do for my hair. I ended up makeshift turning my white wig red, but overall I was totally disappointed with the results. Unfortunately by this point and time there was nothing I could really do about. So I gave up the ghost and fixed my makeup and put on most of my costume before driving over to Pa’s house to finish changing and heading to the party which started at 8:00~8:30.
Once I made it to Pa’s place they strapped my up and I helped Chuma and Pa get their costumes ready. Xue was doing her own make-up following a tutorial she saw online. ( something I need to work on doing >.<;) Once we were all dressed we bravely walked those 8 minutes to Banana’s. Bravely you may ask ? Well we were dressed as Poison Ivy, Yuna ( ffX), a gothic Lolita , and a cheetah in the streets of a fairly low-key town in Japan. Needless to say we got stares. However not nearly as much as the twenty man strong dressed up crew from Takaoka we met at the door when we arrived. It was awesome to see and Trevor ( a man after my own heart) was doned in Steampunk attire that he fashioned mostly himself! Oh he’s so good at making things like that. I need to get better!!!!!.
Anyway TONS of people were there and the costumes were amazing as expected. The music wasn’t so bad either and I had a couple of moments of getting down. I never actually took of my cape the whole night, though I was thinking about it cause it was getting super hot with all the people there. I got to dance with Nat and he was charming as usual. It was just good fun. Ppl got trashed pretty quickly as well! And all the Japanese Girls couldn’t stop commenting on my costume and how they wish they had some of my assets ahem.. <.< YEA! So it was prize time and I ended up wining Sexiest costume at the party! I was super happy. My friend Yui won best female which she should have since she came as Princess Mononoke! The party ended around 2am when most ppl had to catch the late train back to their respective cities. I ended up crashing at Pa’s and was sleep the moment my head hit the pillow. I was a bit drunk, which hadn’t happened in a very long time! However the positive/is I don’t get hangovers or act crazy! Yay for self control!!!!

Sports Day and Enkai 2010

*pictures coming soon*

September 11th:
So today was my jr.high school, Takase’s annual sports day. An Undokai (sports day) is an event set up by most schools in Japan full of competitive sporting events and cheering competitions. The goal is to win some king of trophies or prize, and you tend to receive a trophy for both the athletic and cheering parts of the sporting event. I showed up bright and early at 9am on a Saturday ( >.< ) at the school and found a spot under the tent to watch all the events. I was really excited to see that the two teams had Sengoku Basara banners representing their respective teams. Yukimura represented the red team and Date Masamune represented the white team.

The sports day was much like the ones I saw last year, cept this time I didn't have to juggle two sports days at different schools at once, AND I knew what was going on XD At the end of it I believe the Red team won the overall sports competition while the white team won the cheering contest. Most of the time I assume if one wins the sports competition the other team automatically wins the other trophy as to be fair. At least it seemed that way at the sports days I attended last year. However this year, the division was truly clear between the teams athletic ability and cheering strengths.

Of course even though the reason why I would be bothered to be awake at 9am on a Saturday for school was for the sport competition, this was not the highlight of the day. As usual I was looking forward to the Enkai we would be having later on that evening. I decided to drive there and realized that the place ( Kintaro Onsen) was actually the same Onsen I had my very first Enkai at by the same school. After being escorted to the room where we were to wait for dinner I sat down and watched a little TV. I wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but it had been so long since I watched TV (not TV shows, but TV itself) it kept me interested.

When it was time to eat the staff drew numbers to see where each person would sit, opening remarks were made, and then we were free to eat. I talked with the teachers around me, and served them beer like any other Enaki and karaoke was brought up. I was asked to sing and so I sung two songs. One dedicated to a young female teacher 　because she was so happy about me singing. She really is the cutest thing and only one year older than I.
Of course this didn’t end the night, after dinner we all jumped on the bus and headed to a karaoke bar near where I live and there we spent another two hours singing and having a good time. Right as we leaving the karaoke bar a group of 10 to 15 Japanese people came in. They looked to be around my age and for some reason I had an unshakeable desire to join them. So I did. I said goodbye my fellow teachers and even convinced one to stay behind and party with me. She agreed and we joined the group. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! And the first time I took it upon myself to mingle with Japanese people that weren’t connected to people I was already with or knew. They talked with me so much and we partied and they bought me shots and one even changed the name in a song he sung to my name. I had a blast! When it was time to leave I had ever intention of walking home. However for some reason the bartender stopped me and asked me to sit down. I thought I was in trouble for something. He asked me to sing another song and then closed the bar down. His wife and him said they wanted to take me home so I let them. It was rather strange how that happened but I was out of the rain and I didn’t have to walk. So nothing but pluses!

September 3rd: Owara Matsuri

Since I did traveling and all kinds of other things during the summer I didn’t really have the opportunity to go to a Matsuri ( festival) or wear a yukata (not that I look great in them XD). So even though I normally don’t travel that far out, Pa, Julia and I got ready in Uozu before catching the train to Yatsuo for the Owara festival. [The Owara festival is for Locals of Yatsuo-machi in Toyama take time out from work to don traditional costume and celebrate the Owara Kaze-no-Bon Festival. Their singing, dancing and lantern-lighting are thought to protect the town from wind damage and encourage a successful autumnal harvest.] Pa and I wore yukata and even though we missed the first two trains there >.> we finally caught one around seven. It was really cramped on the second train and Pa was holding on to me for dear life since she was too short to reach the over head handles. It was kind of cute really. It was like she was my lil wife or something. ^^ Finally we got there (lost Julia right away) but that was ok cause I couldn’t walk that fast in the yukata ( though upon further look I might have actually been wearing kimono) and it was blazing hot. It was funny though because no sooner did we get in line and my shaved ice did some women come up and ask us for out picture. We smiled and let her take our picture, but I think it was simply because we were foreigners dressed up in traditional Japanese attire.



The two of us walked along way down the road until we finally met up with Matt and some other people that were there. We walked around with them for a long while, looking at various things like the Owara dancers and the shops. Met up with all the people from Takaoka and other places as well. It was good to see everyone since a lot of people had I hadn’t seen in a while because of summer break. Then I finally split with Pa and went roaming around with Tiffany and a few others since I was to stay with Tiffany for the night. Met up with Akeem as well who was really good in Japanese which of course he had to be, being a CIR. Before we retired back to Tiffanies place we walked through the part of town that was kept in the olden style with tons of paper lanterns. It was really pretty, and a lot of Japanese people were talking about me in my kimono and how they thought I looked nice. I only know this cause Akeem told me! ^^ Finally it was time to head out (which was good cause I was dying at that point from over-heating), and we rested at Tiffanies placed, talked and laughed for a little while before we all passed out

Wrap up of August

( *pinches the bridge of her nose and sighs* Can’t believe I’ve managed to fall nearly two months behind in writing. *Cracks knuckles* let’s makes this short and sweet. )

August 23rd to the 27th was a week I simply hung out with the new Uozu Jets. Pa and Julia to be precise. We ate dinner out a few times and had karaoke with some new Namerikawa Jets and old friends. Turns out that Julia is a good singer. This all led up to Friday night’s poker game (in which I earned a nice bounty) and to the crowning moment of the week “Welcome Weekend”.

August 28th-29th:
So deciding that my car would make it I picked up Julia and Pa and we took the 1hr~1 1/2hr drive to Toga. It was a pretty fun drive and we saw a rainbow as well. Once we got there we managed to land bunks because we made it to the site relatively early. Once we did that we kinda lagged around a bit and finally met up with people. We walked down to the area where the actual party was held. It was relatively fun and it was just simple talking and light drinking until later on that night when everyone was there. I happened to wear a “Doug” shirt to the party and I was told that I had the most awesome shirt at the party. It was pretty amazing how many people knew about the nickelodeon show. People from Britain, Australia and other countries told me that they loved that show. I guess that such greatness was indeed and rightfully shared with the world XD.

The Night in general had its up’s and downs. The music wasn’t very good but we danced to what we could. Had a conversation with a friend that was very sad. However I think we are ok now. I’m not sure really. Had a random meeting with an Interac person and that turned into a wild and crazy night. It took me a solid week to get all the grass out of my hair, and at least a solid two weeks for all the mosquito bites to go away. Darn bugs, I was ate ALIVE! I also made a few more bonds with new people that are paying off today. Even got a nickname out of it. It’s was nice.

Tokyo Game Show Specs and Journal:

So the game show was awesome. Got there after a six hour night bus from Toyama Prefecture to Shinjuku, Tokyo. The six of us didn’t waste anytime getting to the game show. We arrived at the convention area where the show was being held around 7:30-8:00 am and waited in line till entry. To give you an idea of what the line looked like look at the picture below. It beat an Otakon line any day.





Once we finally entered the building I lost literally almost everyone I came with and went off on my own looking and wondering about. Below are pictures of the convention and some of the things I saw.








And ofcourse you have your Game Cosplayers. It wouldn't be a Japanese event if you didn't see cosplay somewhere!






So for a little run down of the things being offered in the near future (though I’m sure all you gamers know what’s going on anyway, here goes nothing):
* Release Dates are Japanese only unless specified*
PLAYSTATION 3:
Playstaion 3 HDD 160GB 29,980円
Playstation 3 HDD 320GB 34,980円
Playstaion MOVE : release date: 10/21/2010 at 5,980円
Playstation Portable 2tone RD: 11/18/2010 17,800円
PSP GO 26800円

Playstation Games in 3D (not all):
KIllZONE 3
Summer Memories
Sly Cooper Collection
Me&My Pet
PowerSmash 4
MotorStorm 3
Gran Turismo 5
Persoanl Game interests:
KillZONE 3
Summer Memoris

Playstation Games(not all):
Grand Turismo 5- release date: 11/3/2010
KILLZONE 3- release date: 2011
Final Fantasy XIV ONLINE- release date: March 2011
Little Big Planet 2- release date: 2011
Gundam Musou 3- release date: December 2010
Metal Gear Solid Rising (lightning bolt action)- release date: TBS
Castlevania:lord of shadows- release date: 2010
Arcana Hearts 3- release date: 1/13/2011
Of the End- release date: 2011
MotorStorm3-release date: 2011
SOCOM:U.S. Navy Seals 4-release date: 2011
Tokyo Jungle
Sly Cooper Collection
Front Mission Evolved
Call of Duty Black Ops- release date: 11/18/2010
Dues EX
VANQUISH-release date: 10/21/2010
Tales of Graces-release date: 12/2/2010
Personal Game interests :
Metal Gear Solid Rising (lightning bolt action) Here
Final Fantasy XIV ONLINE Here
Castlevania:lord of shadows Here

Playstation Portable (not all):
Monster Hunter Portable 3rd- release date: 12/1/2010
Dogma Wars-RD:2011
Unrecorded Chronicles 3- release date: 1/27/2011
Patapon 3-RD: TBS
God of War-RD: 11/11/2010
Lord of Arcana-RD: 10/14/2010
Tactics Ogre-RD: 11/11/2010
The 3rd Birthday
Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep-RD:2011
Final Fantasy: DISSIDIA 012-RD:2011
RADIANT MYTHOLOGY 3-RD:2011
Phantasy Star Portable
Shining Hearts-RD:12/16/2010
Personal Game interests :
The 3rd Birthday Here
Monster Hunter Portable 3rd Here
Lord of Arcana Here
Final Fantasy: DISSIDIA 012 Here
Shining Hearts Here

GAMANIA:
(online games I was personally really impressed with)
Core Blaze-release date: 2011
DIVINA
Reign of Assassins- release date: 2010 (along with a movie)
Langrisset Schwartz- release date: TBS (from renowned jp console game Langrisser)
Soul Captor
Warrior of Dragon
Tiara Concerto
Personal Game interests :

Tiara Concerto Here
Warrior of Dragon
Langrisset Schwartz



NINTENDO DS:
Shiren5 Here

XBOX 360:
Dead Rising 2- release date: 9/302010
FABLE 3-release date: 10/28/2010
Halo Reach-release date:
Monster Hunter FRONTIER 9.0-release date: 9/29/2010 JAPAN ONLY
Personal Game interests :
FABLE 3 Here

MY SWAG! YES THIS WAS ALL THE FREE STUFF!!!!

Just a picture is needed for this ridiculousness:


MY SWAG!! BOUGHT AND PAID FOR!
Bought mostly from SQUARE ENIX SHOWCASE:
Why was this shit in the floor!?! I was like WTF Sephiroth!!


A list for you all
Lightening Key Chain: Here
Serah Engagement Pendant: Here
Lightening Perfume: Here
Squall Lionheart Keychain: Here
Tonberry Keychain: Here
Kuroshitsuji Keyring/phone charm: Here
Mirror Kerby Plushie!: Here
XIV Moogle Plushie!: Here
Squall and Tidus drinking mugs: Here
PSP COVER (not psp itself):

PLAYSTATION 3 COVER (not ps3 itself):


Persona 4 bag (used as my PSP carrying case):


Whew! I think that is all for now lol

Anothe Fun Weekend

Izikaya night August 21st-22nd:
No rest for the weary as they say, especially when one has good friends. So out the door I went to Toyama to meet with Hilda and Debbie for drinks at an izakaiya with our Brazilian friends. After eating a quick dinner at Sizeriya and doing and hour of karaoke with Maranna we meet up with the boys (to interrupt their “boys night” out) at the bottom of the CIC building (ironically enough I go to the CIC building quite often and still have no idea what ‘CIC’ actually stands for O.o) At any rate we all had a great time together talking about random things and seeing who could fit a bear bottle the furthest down their own throat O.o We also played “never have I ever” which in truth is a very dangerous game. That game can either reveal too much, cause someone to get severely angry or if you’re with the right crowd; find out funny and rather interesting things about your friends in which you can smile and laugh off later. We were at the bar for quite a long time and truthfully I became a bit listless towards the end. That and one of the boys managed to get himself sick from drinking too much so when we called Nobuki’s wife to pick him up we all went home. Hilda and I however had no way home since the trains had stopped running, so we spent the night at Marianna’s and Wagner’s home.


The following morning instead of going home or to Sukiyaki the four of us ( after Mc Donalds and Ice-cream ^^) headed to HImi beach or one of those beaches in the Takaoka-esque region. It was a very pretty day and the three of them jumped in the water as soon as we got to the beach. Me however had no bathing suit so I sat on the beach and watched them. Not too long after however they told me to walk in up to my knees just so I could chat with them, and after doing so Wangner ended up splashing me. Eventually I just gave up and swam around in my street clothes. What was odd however is that Wagner, Marianna and Hilda managed to get bit or stung by something. I didn’t get stung but that was enough to end the beach excursion. We packed it all in and Hilda and I were dropped off at the station after we took a pit stop at her house and she let me borrow her clothes. Before we went our separate ways Hilda and I ate dinner at Santoshi’s and even landed free mango lassi. Apparently she always gets free lassi when she is with a small number of people. Which to me is a pretty sweet deal. Tired and ready to sleep I hopped the train to Kurobe and went home.